


Why Are We At Derry High? - Reddie

by sweetpeacheddie



Category: IT (2017), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Fluff, M/M, proposal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-12
Updated: 2018-09-12
Packaged: 2019-07-11 07:54:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15968000
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweetpeacheddie/pseuds/sweetpeacheddie
Summary: Richie “goes missing” and Eddie rushes around town to find him, only to have a cute surprise waiting for him.





	Why Are We At Derry High? - Reddie

Eddie paced back and forth in front of the quarry, kicking stones with his Converse-clad feet and watching them splash into the water. He checked his phone. Richie was supposed to meet him there 2 and a half hours ago but, clearly, had forgotten their plans as usual.

Eddie sighed. He wondered why he always put up with Richie’s shit every day. With him making crude jokes, standing Eddie up, teasing him, calling him “Eds” despite how much Eddie hated it (even though, secretly, he loved it. But he wasn’t going to tell Richie that).

He rolled his eyes and began walking away from the water and through the trees to the street. He couldn’t be bothered waiting anymore. If Richie wasn’t going to bother putting effort into this relationship, than neither was Eddie.

But Eddie stopped as he reached the middle of the street. 2 and a half hours? That was definitely a longer amount of time than usual when Richie forgot their plans. Normally Eddie would wait half an hour or an hour, and eventually Rich would show up. He’d be huffing and puffing and out of breath, and Eddie would offer him his inhaler to steady his breathing. Richie would shove the inhaler away and hastily kiss Eddie, telling him how sorry he was and how much he loved him and that it would never happen again. But the very next week, it would.

But that was 30 minutes, or an hour. Eddie certainly had never ever waited more than 2 hours for his boyfriend to show.

Panic set in at the sudden thought of something bad happening to Richie, and Eddie began running. He didn’t even think of running home to get his car, or simply trying to call Richie on his mobile. He just ran and didn’t stop until he reached Richie’s feral looking apartment building. He found the apartment number 20 buzzer and rung it repeatedly, praying for Richie’s voice to come through the speaker like usual with an “oh, fuck! Eds, I’m so sorry!” But after anxiously swaying his body from side to side for a few minutes, Eddie came to the conclusion that Richie wasn’t at home.

He wasn’t at home?

Where else could he be?

Eddie wracked his brain, then began running towards the first place he could think of - Bill and Stan’s house. Again, the thought to go and get his car never even entered his mind. All Eddie wanted to do was find his boy. To know Richie was safe.

He was thanking God that all of the losers houses were close by as he rushed down Bostik Street, raced up Bill and Stan’s driveway and began knocking on the front door with so much force that it felt as if his knuckles may bleed.

“Stanley?! Bill?!” Eddie shouted, followed by another series of desperate knocks.

“What’s up?” Stan asked in a rushed tone, the door almost hitting the wall after he’d ripped it open.

“I don’t know where Richie is! He was supposed to meet me at the quarry hours ago and he’s not at his apartment! I feel like I’m losing my mind, Stanley, I don’t know where he could be! Have you seen him?” Eddie’s words came out of his mouth so quickly that Stan almost missed them. But he’d caught enough to know the gist. He didn’t know exactly where Richie was, however he did know that he was with Bill. But he was sworn to secrecy by the trash-mouth himself. So instead of having the weight of a lie resting on his shoulders, Stan decided to answer Eddie’s question in a way that let him tell the truth without actually giving away where Richie was.

“I haven’t actually seen him today, Eddie,” Stan answered honestly. I think he might have been with Bill, but I don’t know where they went.”

“Oh, God. They could be anywhere!” Eddie exclaimed. He thanked Stan for his help and began running once again. To where, he didn’t know. No thoughts other than finding Richie were entering his mind.

Stanley checked his phone, a message from Bill popping up with a simple “ready!”

“Hey, Eddie!” Stan called out. “Wait up, I’ll drive!”

The two boys drove around town in search for their loved ones. Stan was telling the truth when he said he hadn’t known where Richie and Bill went. Well, that was until Bill texted him the address. His tight grip on the steering wheel never loosened for a second as they drove down the streets of Derry.

“Where do you think they went, Stan?” Eddie asked. He was a lot calmer now. Stan had put the radio on and 80’s hits played softly throughout the car, greatly reducing Eddie’s stress levels.

“Honestly, I don’t know. Bill forgets to tell me everything,” Stan laughed. “He’s so damn absentminded sometimes.”

“But, you’re married?” Eddie said, confusion laced in his tone. “Married people tell each other everything, don’t they?”

“Marriage isn’t always about telling each other everything, Eddie. It’s about trusting each other enough to know that you don’t have to tell each other everything. You don’t always have to know where the other person is, because you trust them enough to know that there’s no need to worry. It’s about coming home at the end of the day and having that one person there that you can share whatever you want to with. And knowing that, if you don’t want to share anything about the day with them, you don’t have to. You can just sit on the couch in silence, and it doesn’t matter. Because you’re still with them.”

“Wow,” Eddie gasped. “That’s… Kind of, really beautiful, Stan.”

“Yeah, Billy turned me to mush,” Stan chuckled. Eddied laughed along with him in agreement, not realising the road they were headed down until Stan had parked the car.

“Why are we at Derry High?” Eddie asked. He gazed out at the old building which he had graduated from 5 years prior, his eyebrows furrowed in utter confusion.

Stan smiled brightly at him. “Go to your year 7 English class.”

“Wha- why? What’s going on?”

“Just… Trust me here, Eddie. Go.”

Eddie nodded and reluctantly stepped out of the car. He threw his short legs over the old rusted front gate, then began walking into the school.

As he wandered the hall, memories of himself and the losers club came flooding back: fights with Henry and the Bowers gang, making out with Richie against the lockers, jokes and banter going back and forth between the group. It made Eddie feel nostalgic, almost like he missed this hellhole.

He kept going down the hall until he reached classroom 50A, his old year 7 English room. It was the only room with the door closed and, when he opened it to be greeted with nothing but darkness, the only room with the blinds down.

Eddie peered back down the hall to see that Stan’s car now contained both himself and Bill. They both smiled at Eddie before the car disappeared and Eddie was left alone to the dark classroom.

“Rich?” He asked quietly. His fear of the dark kicked in and Eddie quickly reached his hand out to the left, struggling to find the light switch. Once he did, he was greeted with a plain old classroom. The whiteboard read “Welcome to year 7 English with Mrs. Clarin!” Eddie chuckled, remembering that that’s what was written on that very same board all those years ago.

He walked further into the empty classroom. “Richie?” He said again, this time slightly louder.

He walked over to Richie’s old desk and chair in the very back corner of the classroom and sat down. A white piece of paper was lying on the desk, fresh ink scribbled on it. Eddie picked it up and read it out loud: “if u r reading this then it means u r in my chair. get out looser”

A sudden realisation hit Eddie. This was the exact note that he had read back in 7th grade. He’d sat down in this very chair, and read this very note, which caused him to move a seat to the right. And seconds after he’d read the note in year 7, Richie Tozier had walked into the classroom and sat in that back corner chair.

Eddie looked up as he heard the door creak, and in walked Richie. He had a stack of random year 7 books in his hands, and was wearing the same shirt he’d worn on the first day of school.

Eddie laughed. “What the hell are you doing?”

“You’re in my chair,” Richie said, gesturing to the desk that Eddie was currently occupying. “Get out, loser.”

Eddie giggled and moved out of Richie’s old seat and into his own. “What’s all this about?”

Richie took a deep breath in and smiled. “Do you remember the first time we ever met?” Eddie nodded. How could he ever forget? “It was right here. In these very seats. After you read that note and saw me sit here, it looked like you were gonna shit fucking bricks, Eds.”

The two of them laughed as they remembered the day so clearly. “You were terrifying back then, Rich.”

“Hey, I still am!” Richie protested. “Anyway. The second I saw you, I just felt something. I didn’t know what it was back then. Course, then I found out I was fucking gay when I was 15 and everything made sense.” Eddie would have laughed, but for some reason this felt more serious than Richie usually was. And he also was waiting for Richie to explain why the hell they were in their old school.

“Look, I’m not great with words,” Richie said as he stood up from his chair. He grabbed Eddie’s hands and pulled up the smaller boy, keeping their hands intertwined as he continued talking. “But the second I saw you, Eds, I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you.”

Eddie gasped as he realised what was happening, and tears began welling up in his eyes. As he looked into Richie’s, he could see tear drops threatening to escape the taller boys too.

“And when I look at you now, I know more than ever how badly I want that. Eddie, please marry me?”

Eddie didn’t say anything. He just nodded his head and the tears from both boys came rushing out. They wrapped their arms around each other as sobs of happiness wracked through their bodies.

“Yes, God, of course,” Eddie whispered into Richie’s ear. He pulled out of the hug and grabbed Richie’s freckled face in his small hands and pushed their lips together. They moved in sink for a few moments before they needed air and pulled apart, though they continued crying.

“That’s why you stood me up?” Eddie chuckled as he wiped the tears from his face.

Richie nodded, laughter escaping his mouth as he too wiped his face with his arm sleeves. “Yeah. Well, Bill was supposed to pick you up at the quarry to take you here, but I fucking slept in and then I forgot to tell you I wouldn’t be there. It’s hard work planning something cute!”

“You idiot,” Eddie laughed.

“I can’t believe you want to marry me.”

“God. I can’t believe it too.”


End file.
